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Time for the influx of excitement to begin! The Olympics inAthens will bring visibility to gymnastics. Let’s get our studentswrapped up in the thrill of it all! Host a themed Olympic lesson

or run Olympic theme birthday parties. Need ideas? Read on. Be sureto save this document for implementation in 2008 during theOlympics in Beijing, China or why wait until 2008 – have your ownOlympic themed lesson plan for classes annually!

Wouldn’t the parents of your students be impressed when their childpipes up about understanding the march-in of the various countries’flags? Or the child remarks, "Hey Dad, that swimmer just did a FlipTurn. It is like the Forward Roll I learned at gymnastics." The fatherthen asks the child how he knows that it’s called a ‘flip turn.’ Ofcourse, the proud student replies, "My gymnastics teacher told me!"

Gymnastics is the basis of ALL sport! The most highly viewed summerOlympic sport is gymnastics! We can capitalize on all of thepublicity. Share the following ideas with your staff. Use these ideasas a launching pad for additional creativity.

An Olympic themed lesson has so many exciting possibilities. Thisarticle contains ideas in the areas of:

•Entering the gym: Flag March In•Pre-Warm-up: Marathon run•Roll Call with the torch•Four Olympic style warm-ups•Fifteen stations for use in a circuit with an Olympic flare•Three eye-hand coordination ideas•One transition idea (from one area of gym to another)•Ending idea

Notes To Gym InstructorsA number of the suggested ideas are elaborate to prepare for, whileothers are simple to incorporate into the gym environment. Choosethe items that best suit your facility.

You, as the Instructor, will set the tone for this special event. Duringthe Olympic themed lesson wear red, white and blue clothing. Or donsports clothing such as swim wear, tennis outfits, or biker’s shorts. Ifyou speak a foreign language, do so periodically during the lesson.Okay you crazed Preschool Instructors, you can make up your ownsilly language!

Set the mood for the Olympics with decorations. Hang flags allaround the gym and in the lobby. Hang posters of athletes. Build anawards stand. Display gold, silver and bronze medals. Play musicfrom past Olympics during class or softly throughout the lobby. TheOlympic Fan Fare music from 1984 and 1996 stand out distinctly asOlympic music.

Let’s look at options for starting class with an Olympic twist.

Flag March InEnthuse the students and parents out in the lobby prior to class.Announce, "It’s Olympic Week in the gym!" Begin your lesson at theentry door to the gym. Have available rhythmic ribbons or flags fromvarious countries. (Out of respect, do not let flags touch the ground.The flags can be stored in a bin.) Gather the students together andquickly describe how different countries compete in lots of funsporting events. The gathering of each of the countries top athletesis called the Olympics. Show the children a ribbon/flag. Tell them,"We are going to pretend that these are flags from around the world."Call out a few country names, plus a fantasy country like Flipaly. Seeif they catch you!

Tell the students that each of them will have their own flag to hold.Demonstrate how to hold it up high, with a straight arm. Also,demonstrate how to march and wave with your free hand. If you feelthe need to warn the children about not poking one another, do soat this time.

Hand out the flags. Cue up some grand marching music. The OlympicFan Fare music from the 1984 Olympics is very motivational. Let thegames begin! Lead the children through a slow march around thegym. Encourage them to wave to the parents or older students in thegym. At the end of the march, collect the flags and prepare for a pre-warm up, the marathon run.

Pre-Warm-Up: Marathon RunQuickly explain to the children that one of theevents in the Olympics is a Marathon run. Therunners travel over 26 miles! "Can you run that far?Let’s try!" Lead your children on a jog through faraway places in the gym. Be sure to have the joggingpath unobstructed. It’s a blast to run out into thelobby, past the offices and rest rooms, through thebirthday party room, back into the gym, down thevault run way, and all around the equipment. Be sureto have additional Instructors on hand to keep thestragglers moving.

An enjoyable manner for ending the Marathon run is to allow the kidsto run into a winner’s finish line ‘tape.’ Ask two Instructors or parentsto hold an elastic ribbon at the designated finish line. (Flaghousesells the Co-operband.) The children can be directed to simply runinto the springy ribbon and shout, "I won!"

By Jeannie McCarthy

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Roll Call With The TorchCreate a large circle with the students. Whilethey are catching their breath, show them yourhome made Olympic torch. Ask them to pass it tothe person beside them. Explain that the torch islit by a flame on Mount Olympus in Greece and iscarried by relay runners to the site of the hostingcountry. The torch landed in Los Angeles in 1984and in Atlanta in 1996. The Olympics occur everyfour years. This year the games have returned tothe city and country where they began in 776B.C., At he ns, Gre e c e. The Mo dern Summe rOlympic Games began in 1896.

While you are spewing out all of this Olympic history, the kids arepassing the torch. Next, stop the passing of the torch and set thetorch into the top opening of a traffic cone in the center of the circle.Call each child’s name for Roll. One at a time they get to hold up thetorch and declare, "I am a winner!"

Four Olympic StyleWarm-up Ideas1) Track & FieldDescribe to the students how the Olympic athletes compete in Track& Field. Mention that in some competitions there are relay races."Kids, today we will do a modified version of a relay race. We call itBoxer Short Relays!" Arrange the students into pairs. Seat them ona starting line, one standing in front of the other (ask them to sit asyou demonstrate the relay action). Across from each pair of studentsplace a hoop and one pair of boxer shorts. Train the children aheadof time, or at this moment, to listen for the cue of ‘Ready, get set,GO!’ Explain and demonstrate the following details. "When I say, ‘Go!’the first person in your line gets to run to the hoop, put on a pair ofboxer shorts, shout ‘I’m so fast!’ then take off the shorts, run back tothe start and give their partner a high five. The second person doesthe same thing. When you and your friend have each had a turn toput on the boxer shorts, sit down quickly."

Teacher notes: the first run through of a relay style race with youngchildren is best performed with each child moving on the "Go!"command. When you pair up the children and one child is required towait, this raises the difficulty level of the Warm-up. Be sure to haveextra staff on hand to control the "waiting" partner. Be willing toease the tension by falling to the floor in frustration and say, "Can’tyou wait to be tagged??? My, my, my! Oh, P-L-E-A-S-E, can we tryit again? I’d really like to see if we are ready for the Olympics. Butwe must learn how to tag our relay partner. Ready? Let’s give it ago again!"

For your Beginner students, you could use lummi sticks as the baton.Also, the Beginner students could run to a target (cone, hoop), thenrun around the set-up to end up behind their partner in order to makea smooth hand trade off of the baton.

To Add DifficultyTo add difficulty to the relay action, change the locomotor mo v e me nt toGallop, Hop, walk backward s, Crab Walk, and the like. One notch harde rwould be to perform one style of locomo t ion to the hoop and a differe nto ne upon return to the start. Add i t io na l l y, you could re q u i re that the

c h i l dren perform a skill or exe rcise at the hoop. Such as Fro nt Scale andc o u nt to five, do 3 Tuck Jumps, or try 6 Jumping Ja c k s.

2) Swimming RelaysCreate swimming lanes on the floorexercise mat with chalk, jump ropes,or my favorite – Ve l c ro beams(available from Caro l i na GymSupply’s Ben Edkins). Each swimmerhas his/her own lane. Give eachswimmer a scooter. The kids can lie on their tummies and swim (roll)to the other side of the pool. Note: many of the followingsuggestions can be performed without a scooter.

The proper command for swimmers to start a race is, "Swimmers, takeyour mark." Then a starting gun is shot. A cap gun works fine.

During your Swimming Relay Warm-up you can request that thechildren try to swim Free Style, Breast Stroke and Butterfly Stroke. Ofcourse, you are simply looking for the arm motions. The legs cansimply run to push the scooter forward. Your Beginner students canattempt to perform a whip kick (frog kick for Breast Stroke), and adolphin kick (for Butterfly Stroke). The Back Stroke action on ascooter is a little difficult to control. The Advanced Beginners mightbe able to stay in their lanes.

If you are running a camp and you have available time to fill, explainwhat the IM event is in swimming. IM stands for Individual Medley.One person swims 4 lengths of the pool while performing a differentswim stroke for each length. Right off of the starting block theswimmer performs the Butterfly stroke, upon touching the wall thestroke turns into the Backstroke, after contact with the wall the nextstroke is Breast, and the final length is Freestyle.

After explaining the IM event to the students, get them racing! Canthey remember the order? It is Fly, Back, Breast, Free. The gymnastswill swim back and forth on their scooters four passes! This shouldlead to a celebratory drink at the water fountain!

3) Basketball Warm-upTo set up this Warm-up, place fo u rb a s ketball hoops or plastic tubs onseparate edges of the floor exercise area.Set dozens of balls in the center of thefloor. In front of each basketball hooparrange 3 chalk (or Velcro Beam) lines toact as foul line shooting markers. Thesimple instructions would be to commandthe kids to start near the balls, grab a ball,run to a line on the floor, shoot a basket,then repeat the sequence. Back and forth,running and shooting.

To up the difficulty for the Beginner gymnasts, assign a score numberto each line at the basket. The closest line is worth two points, themiddle line is three points, the farthest line is 5 points. Allow thechildren to keep their score as they successfully make a basket.

The teachers will be kept occupied with returning the balls to thecenter of the floor. For a little fun, play music from the HarlemGlobetrotters!

4) Flag Matching Warm-upDivide the children into Group 1 and Group 2. Give Group One flags

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from various countries or use a variety of rhythmic ribbons of solidcolors. Give Group Two children the matching flag. Cue up thenational anthem from the USA or another country and tell the kids,"Find the person who has a flag just like yours! When you find eachother, hold hands and yell, ‘Yippee!’" When all the children havelocated their match, explain this little change. "Next, while themusic plays, move around the area and wave your flag high. When themusic stops, trade your flag with someone. Try to acquire a differentcolored flag."

Pe r form that sequenc e. After all of the children have acquired ad i f f e re nt flag, cue up the action to locate the person who hast he ma t c h .

This game can be repeated. The children remain interested becausethey have a different pattern of flag to look for. Also, to make thegame more difficult, ask for a different locomotor movement duringthe musical movements segments. The locomotor movements willhave to be upright ones due to holding a flag in one’s hand.

15 Stations For Use In ACircuit With An Olympic Flare

Long Jump like the Track and Fieldathletes. Use an open panel mat with astarting mark. Demonstrate how to plieand swing the arms simultaneously frontand back. Then with a huge arm swingforward perform the Long Jump. How farcan you go?

Javelin and Discus Throw using a foam noodle and/or Frisbee.Place a hoop or container on thefloor. Establish a starting spot (carpetsquare or poly shape). Demonstratehow to stand in a gia nt Lungeposition with the noodle in your handbeside your ear. Throw the noodletowards the target or past the target.For the Discus throw, demonstratehow to do two Full Turns beforet o s s i ng the Frisbee. The Beginne rgymnasts can be shown how to holdthe Frisbee properly.

Hurdles are simple to incorporate into a circuit. Use 2 parallellines of cones with ropes draped from line to the other. Ropes aremore user friendly than stiff, wooden batons. Demonstrate how toRun and Leap over the hurdles without bumping them.

Basketball shooting can be added to a circuit by using a varietyof items to stand in as your basketball hoop. The ideal piece ofequipment is the plastic child’s basketball hoop sold in toy stores.Explain to the children to take a shot at the basket, retrieve theirball, and place their ball back in a container for the next athlete.

Gymnastics on the bar. Set up a Junior Swing bar for thePreschool students or use the low bar for the older kids and selectskills for them to attempt. This is typically a spotted station due tothe element of height, flight, and swing. After the child has their turnat pretending to be an Olympic gymnast, ask for a Ta Da position.This is an easy station to explain to the students the meaning of the

word ‘routine.’ Spot the kids through a Pullover to Front Support thenForward Roll Dismount to a Ta Da. Voila! It’s a routine!

Gymnastics on the beam. With thebeams that are in your circuit be sure toemphasize that in the Olympics the girlsare 3 feet up in the air! Ask your studentsto do beam skills that match their abilities.Explain the words Mount and Dismount.Ask for a Ta Da position after eachdismount. This is also a nice station toexplain to the kids the meaning of thew o rd ‘ro u t i ne.’ Allow your Beginne rgymnasts to make up their own sequences.

Gymnastics tumbling can easily beadded to any circuit. A simple station in acircuit would be the cartwheel mat withhands and feet marked upon it. Of course numerous other tumblingstations can be included in a circuit. Natural choices are wedges forrolls, a padded wall to walk up backwards to do a Handstand, andtrapezoid pieces to do balances like V-sits upon.

The athlete conditioning station can be a station of foldedpanel mats in which the children are asked to do step up and stepdowns, similar to Step Aerobics action. Can they go up and down 15times? Are their hearts going faster? Great!

Another athlete conditioning station can be Push-ups on acarpet square. "Olympians are strong! Let’s get strong like theOlympic athletes!"

Another athlete conditioning station can be created by using alow bar with a large mat in front of it. The child holds the bar, placestheir feet up on the large mat, and performs Chin-ups. Note that withthe feet elevated it is easier for the child to successfully chin up.

Soccer dribbling can be set up byarranging two low floor beams parallel to oneanother to create an alley. The objective isto dribble a soccer ball down the alley usingonly your feet. Note: remind the children toreturn the ball to the start of the alley for thenext soccer player to use.

Boxer training can be added to acircuit by simply leaving a pile of jump ropeson a panel mat. Instruct the children toselect a rope and attempt to do the jumprope action 10 times. (Ten is the perfectscore a gymnast can attain from the judges!)

T he w re s t l e r ’s escape can bepracticed on a soft, flat skill cushion.Demonstrate that a Log Roll is often how awrestler escapes his opponent.

Equestrian station can be added by simply creating an alleywith jump ropes or Velcro beams. Ask the kids to Gallop like a horsedown the alley. Additionally, you could add obstacles for the childrento hurdle over to simulate the Steeple Chase event.

"You be the judge" station can be a fun one! Set out piecesof cardboard with individual numbers on them. The numbers shouldrange from one to ten. When the child arrives at this station, they

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should seek out the number 10 (perfect score), move over to atrapezoid piece, put a medal around their own neck, stand up on thetrap and throw their arms up in the air! To make this a tad morechallenging, turn all of the numbers upside down so that the childrenhave to flip the cardboard pieces over to find the number ten.

Three Eye-HandCoordination IdeasVolleyball IdeasSet up a space with a low barrier. Itcan simply be panel mats with araised folded portion (accordion), ortwo large cones with a rope drapedfrom one to the other. Arrange thechildren into teams on either side ofthe barrier. Use a balloon as thevolleyball. Allow the kids to bop theballoon back and forth across theb a r r ie r. To ma ke this activitysimulate Badminton (yes, it is anOlympic sport), give the childrenrackets to use. Beginner gymnasticscan use true badminton birdies.

Field Hockey IdeasEstablish a goal area across the gymfrom a starting line. The goal can simplybe one folded panel mat sitting astridetwo panel mats leaving a space to knocka bean bag or ball in. Carefully explainthe safety guidelines of using hockeysticks (keep the stick face down on thefloor). Demonstrate how to guide thebean bag or ball across the floor towardsthe goal. An optional method for thisset up is to create the goal in the centerof the floor exercise area. All of thestudents begin on perimeter of the floorexercise mat and work their bean bagsor ball towards the center of the floor.

Cycling IdeasHave available a large number of tricycles or Big Wheels. Ask theparents to donate these items for one week. Create a race trackthrough the gym. Be mindful of the changing floor surfaces. Lead thechildren on a walk-through of the course. Put the children into pairs.Stagger the start times of the pairs. Remind them that this is notbumper cars! We are cycling to the finish line. Set up props alongthe way to create a life like outdoor environment.

One Transition IdeaMoving One From Area Of Gym To AnotherWhen it is time to move to a different Olympic event in the gym, tellthe students that it is Equestrian Time! First ask the children tostand in a line, one behind the other. Next, demonstrate with anotherteacher how to kneel down on hands and knees, one behind theother. The second person holds onto the first person’s ankles. The twohorses are connected now! The lead person simply begins to crawl

and the second person follows while holding on tight. Aid thechildren to get into formation and giddy up to the next rotation!

To make this transition easier, simply hand a few foam noodles to theline of students. Each child holds the noodle beside them. "Hold thereigns as we gallop to our next event!"

If you do not have foam noodles, use jump ropes or Velcro beams forthe children to hold onto.

Ending ideaBy the end of class the athletes should betired! Arrange four folded panel mats in asquare shape on the floor. The mats are nowyour benc he s. The center is a pre t e ndbasketball court. Ask the kids to sit on thebenches. Explain that some athletes have to catch their breath andsit on the benches to rest during a basketball game. Take a few longbreaths.

Next, explain that the fans of the athletes sit in the stands on chairs."Let’s pretend we are fans watching an exciting game. Let me hearhow loud you can cheer!" Let the kids have fun yelling at the top oftheir lungs. If you like, begin a gym cheer or start a stand up sitdown wave!

Thank the children for being such good sports. Review any key topicsregarding the Olympics. Tell them one more tidbit: soccer is the mostpopular participation sport in the world. Send the athletes home!

Jeannie McCarthy has been a KAT Instructor since the inceptionof the courses nine years ago. At Congress 2003 she wasrecognized as one of the top six National KAT Instructors for the2002 calendar ye a r. Mrs. McCarthy is currently enjoy i n ginvolvement with the students of Double ‘D’ Gymnastics in Media,Pa., as an Instructor and Curriculum Consultant. She can becontacted at gymtastics@aol.com.

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Your link to USA G y m n a s t i c sYour link to USA Gymnastics

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